If you've asked yourself why Facebook's costs to acquire have skyrocketed, here's what's up: 

In 2021, Apple's iOS update forced app developers to ask users for their permission to track them. 94% of those users understandably opted out – and Facebook lost $10B in 2022 as their advertising services struggled to reach the right audiences. You have probably seen this play out in your lookalike models not being nearly as effective as they once were.

When we say things like Facebook is “dead” as an acquisition channel, we’re not exactly wrong, but we’re not exactly right either.

It’s true that those amazingly low costs to acquire via Facebook are probably not coming back, at least anytime soon. But it’s also true that Facebook is just first to illustrate this trend for us. 

As privacy regulations expand and third-party cookies are deprecated more across the landscape – most notably across Google Chrome, which makes up 64% of the browser marketplace, in 2024 – digital advertising as a whole will realize an upward swing in costs to get in front of your best prospects. Narrowing your focus to assume it’s just Facebook would be short-sighted. It won't end here as tech is forced to respond to audience demands for privacy.

So what can we do about it? We need to move faster to diversify our risk investments, get creative in our media and content planning, and more realistically forecast the impact that growing privacy demands will have on consumer reach. 

Privacy is good for humans, AND it doesn't have to be bad for marketers if we plan for it appropriately. Let’s talk about it.